Announcing a New Fiscal Sponsor for Philanthropy Women

I am pleased to announce that the Women’s Funding Network has agreed to serve as Philanthropy Women’s fiscal sponsor for our not-for-profit publishing work. This partnership will help us to raise funds to make Philanthropy Women a more potent force for educating the community about how women in philanthropy are driving social change.

The Women’s Funding Network (WFN) grew out of a 1984 joint meeting of the National Black United Fund and the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, where participants discussed creating an organization exclusively for women’s funds. By 2000, WFN had grown into a network of 94 member funds and foundations with over $200 million in assets, deploying $30 million a year in grants. In 2003, WFN received a $5 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which enabled significant growth. Today, WFN continues to expand, with over 100 women’s funds and foundations spanning 30 countries, and continues to collaborate with other philanthropic powerhouses like Kellogg, the Gates Foundation, and the Clinton Foundation, to address gender equality globally.

I first became aware of WFN because our longtime Executive Director of Women’s Fund of Rhode Island, Marcia Coné, reached out to meet with me and discuss women’s philanthropy both in Rhode Island and nationally. Marcia is now the Chief Strategist for the Women’s Funding Network and the author of Permission Granted: Changing the Paradigm for Women in Leadership, which explores ways to enact positive change in our own lives as well as in our communities.

I am thrilled to be able to partner with such an important organization in the history of progressive women’s funding. My job here at Philanthropy Women is enhanced by knowing that I have the support of this powerful network of women thinkers and doers. Please join me in welcoming the Women’s Funding Network as our fiscal sponsor, and in thanking them for their support.

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Author: Kiersten Marek

Kiersten Marek, LICSW, is the founder of Philanthropy Women. She practices clinical social work in Cranston, Rhode Island, and writes about how women donors and their allies are advancing social change.
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